Baseball Cathedrals, Vol. I

By Phil Hecken, on January 12th, 2014

By Phil Hecken

Several months ago, in the comments, a reader whom I can’t remember mentioned that @MLBCathedrals would be a great Twitter account to follow. I think, at the time, the account was just starting, since it had like 1,000 followers.

A couple months and 26,000+ followers later, it’s one of the best on Twitter, especially if you’re into the history of baseball stadia (as I know a number of Uni Watchers, myself included, are). I began following the account that day, and I’m constantly amazed by the breadth and depth of the photos and history found on that account. If you didn’t click on the link above, go back and do so now, and just take a few minutes to read the timeline with all the photos and history. You won’t be disappointed.

I decided it was time to dig a little deeper and get to know the man behind MLB Cathedrals, and today, I’m pleased to let you get a bit better acquainted.

I conducted an interview with the proprietor of MLB Cathedrals, and I’m going to break that up into two separate articles. The first half will primarily deal with unis, and the second will delve into the stadia of baseball. So without further ado, here we go:

. . .

Uni Watch: Thanks for the interview. To start, the basics: What’s your name, where did you grow up and how old are you?

Mark Anderson: My name is Mark Anderson I grew up in the Seattle area. I am now 41 years old. I went Washington State University (Ryan Leaf was our QB, ha) and got a BA in Broadcasting. Worked in Radio for a couple years. Currently, I am stationed in the Republic of Korea, as a Non Commissioned Officer, in the US Army.

UW: Are you a Uni Watch reader? If so, how long and how did you find us?

MA: I’ve been on to Uni Watch for what seems like years now. I most likely discovered Uni Watch by Googling to see some uniform change and your site was the first to pop up. I’ve been hooked ever since.

MA: I’m always interested and want to be the first one to know of any changes in uniforms for the upcoming season, particularly MLB. There is no better source, period, than Uni Watch for getting up to the minute visual information on uniform changes, logo changes, and patch changes. Anything that goes on a uniform you have covered and I appreciate that.

UW: Sweet! You read weekends, I hope? You like the concepts?

MA: Though I don’t always agree with the proposed uniform changes that Uni Watch comes up with, including reader created ones that you post, I thoroughly enjoy this feature as well.

UW: Any particular unis you don’t like?

MA: In my opinion, MLB uniforms consist of entirely way too much blue and red. If it were up to me I’d have the Padres go back to this uniform:

UW: Ah, the 1969 throwbacks. I love those. They need to go back to those.

MA: I love everything about it: it’s brown, which isn’t used by anyone, love the cream, and the stirrups with the yellow stripes are fantastic. This would be, instantly, my favorite uniform in baseball. Never really been an online troll but, I send @Padres and @PadresMikeDee (Team CEO) a tweet at least everyday that simply says, “Brown.”

UW: I’m pretty sure the Pads are considering new unis for next (2015) season, although I’d have to check. So maybe. Any other teams you’d like to ‘ditch the blue or red’?

MA: Tampa Bay is another candidate that I’d like to see go away from blue. Are they trying to be sea creature rays or rays of light? I’m confused. I like the green unis (at least the colors) that they wore a few years ago.

UW: Yeah, Paul really likes that one too! I’m not a huge fan of it, but it’s better than the bland generic uni they wear now.

MA: If the Rays are really migrating toward sun rays. Maybe USC Trojans colors (red and yellow). No one in MLB has this combination and personally think that would look sharp.

UW: Anyone else?

MA: One last team I think would be ideal for a color change would be the Atlanta Braves, particularly when they move into their new ballpark. I’d like to see them swap out their blue for Hunter green. Hunter green and red would would phenomenal, in my opinion. They do have a red and green in their history, as seen in this logo:

UW: Um…

MA: Again, no one in baseball has a red and green combination.

UW: Well, I agree with you on the colors. OK. Let’s move on to your Twitter presence. When, exactly did you start it up? And do you have a blog or Myspace or Facebook or other accounts?

MA: Currently, @MLBcathedrals is less than four months old. I have never had a Myspace or Facebook account (have had enough ex-girlfriend trouble with the wife as it is, lol).

UW: OK then. What made you want to start up MLB Cathedrals?

MA: Back in September, while I was on leave from Korea, I was cruising through some photo archives, like I do often, when I first thought of starting a ballpark history Twitter account just to share some of my knowledge on the subject. Before this, while keeping in touch with an Army buddy, I’d have him text me photos of old ballparks and I’d guess which park it was. After a hundred or so of not being able to stump me, he gave up.

UW: Sounds like the obsessive study of ballpark aesthetics! Did you think a Twitter account would be so popular?

MA: When I started MLB Cathedrals I thought I’d find a few hundred, maybe even a thousand, followers who were ballpark fanatics like me. Never in my wildest Imagination did I think @MLBcathedrals would pick up an average of over 6,000 followers a month.

UW: Nice! I’m glad it keeps growing too.

MA: Like I said before, I’ve always been fascinated by history, Major League Baseball, ballparks, ballpark and MLB history, architecture, ballpark architecture, photography, sports logos, and uniforms.

UW: Well, I think there’s a site or two that keeps track of unis and logos…

MA: Uni Watch has sports logos and uniforms covered. I did a quick search and couldn’t find any Twitter accounts that focused on ballparks and ballpark history.

UW: Very cool. OK, I want to really get into the ballparks and history and stuff. We’ll get into that next.

. . .

OK readers — that will end Part I of this interview — there’s a lot more great stuff coming up in Part II, but do yourself a favor and give Mark’s account a follow and check out all the great stuff in there. Next time, we’ll have a much more in-depth look at the inner workings of MLB Cathedrals and I’ll have Mark describe some of his favorites.

Oz Open Preview…

Back once again with my doubles partner, Brinke Guthrie, who is going to give us the run-down on the goings-on Down Undah, as the Australian Open is set to kick off today.

• Andy Murray is coming off a terrific 2013 that ended with back surgery, and he’ll try to rebound wearing this look from Adidas. This says he’ll also have a new Head racquet — more likely it’s the model he’s always used, with a new paint job.

• Tomas Berdych of Sweden is the only player I know of wearing H&M clothing — rather bland IMO.

• And finally — the stars at the Australian Open get everything handed to them on a gold plate, but not so for most of the rest of the men’s and women’s tours. Here’s a good article on one Camila Giorgi from SI.

. . .

Thanks, Brinke!

Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We begin today with Thomas Juettner, with a new look for the Chicago White Sox:

Phil,

I thought about what color schemes are unseen in baseball and wondered what the White Sox would like if they went with just black and white. Ideally I would like to see blue but every other team in their division already does. I went back through Sox history and found in the teens and twenties they used a double outline with some frequency. I thought it worked really well with the double outlined S-O-X the Sox use in promotional materials. So I took that concept and applied it to the whole uniform set. I threw in some striped socks to add something unique as well as Chicago themed roundel for the home set. Home you enjoy!

Thomas Juettner

. . .

Next up is Bryan Moss with some San Diego Chargers concepts:

Phil,

I would like these to be on Uni Concepts. The Powder Blue uni is the home one. The white is the away. The yellow is the alt.

Roll Tide
Bryan

. . .

We close today with Dave Singleton with some Portland Trailblazers jersey concepts:

Hey Phil,

Attached are my jersey concepts. The biggest idea is getting rid of the white home color and utilizing a silver home jersey. As for the logo I just kept it simple and removed the annoying tilted logo which every Blazer fan hates.

Cheers,

Dave

. . .

And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Not a lot of submissions from yesterday, so it’s Old School ticker today (divided into “big” and “not as big” news).

That’s it for today, everyone. Big thanks to Mark for the interview on MLB Cathedrals (seriously, if you haven’t followed him yet, you’re missing out!) and look for Part II soon!

Two more NFL games on the docket today: 49ers will visit Charlotte and take on the Panthers (who will be in all black unis) at 1:05 ET, followed by the Bolts visiting Denver to take on the Broncos at 4:40. And of course, if it’s somehow televised where you live (Big 10 Network), you can check out Northwestern in their nifty new, student-designed hoops unis as they take on Illinois at 7:30.

Also — don’t forget — if you live in the NYC area (and are a Mets fan), check out the Queens Baseball Convention (at McFadden’s Restaurant & Saloon at Shea Citifield), next Saturday – January 18th. It’s basically an all day long Mets-a-palooza, with a ton of stuff, including an All-Star Uniform Panel Paul’s assembled (and on which I’ll be seated, surrounded by some real giants): Designer Todd Radom, Jon Springer, who wrote the book and who runs Mets By The Numbers, and Russ Gompers, who runs Stitches. I only hope to be able to add something constructive to that all-star panel. There’s much, much more too, so just visit the QBC link above to see who will be there and what will be happening. OK? OK! Hope to see some of you there. Even if you’re not a Mets fan, you might enjoy it (ok, you probably won’t).

47 comments to Baseball Cathedrals, Vol. I

arrScott|
January 12, 2014 at 7:44 am |

Really looking forward to more of the interview with Mark!

And yes, yes, yes to the MLB color changes Mark mentions. The Rays briefly had a uniform that was nicely balanced between light blue and dark green – I’d prefer that to the more green-green-green-black look referenced, but either way would be a step up. And someone needs to swap navy for green; I’ve always thought the Twins or Red Sox should be that someone. Never considered the Braves, but it makes sense.

x|
January 12, 2014 at 11:47 am |

It should be the Red Sox. They already have a green alternate, and Fenway is all green to start with. I think they’d be too afraid to make such a big change (even to an accent color) to such a historic/traditional team, but it would be a huge improvement.

Except for the thick 1988 version (which is what is on those gray alternates) the font was very skinny through about 1997, then switched to a mid-weight until KU switched the entire university to the Trajan font in 2005.

I’m not sure what it is called, but it’s supposed to be based on the 1988 national champ teams unis.

Oakville Endive|
January 12, 2014 at 10:17 am |

If one didn’t know better, one could think the Ohio State Buckeyes alternative hockey jersey is representing their support for the legalization of marijuana? :)

Too bad the Panthers are going all black, otherwise it would not be that bad of a game in terms of how it looks.

dgags|
January 12, 2014 at 10:30 am |

Not a Kansas fan, but I love, Love, LOVE the unis they wore yesterday…

teenchy|
January 12, 2014 at 10:33 am |

Re the Chargers concepts: I appreciate the elimination of navy and the playing up of the powder blue and yellow, but eliminating the bolt as a design element except for the helmet isn’t the best move. The AFL-era secondary logo isn’t easily readable from a distance.

While on the Chargers topic, am I the only one who’d like to see them go mono-white on the road?

Zack|
January 13, 2014 at 3:36 am |

Chargers in mono-white would look great especially with powder blue trim

stan gable|
January 12, 2014 at 10:34 am |

I wonder if the hawaii hoops players like the warm-ups. Don’t they know what a “map of Hawaii” on the back means?

Randy|
January 12, 2014 at 9:45 pm |

What does that mean?

superfly|
January 13, 2014 at 2:14 am |

Check Urban Dictionary, if you want, it is slang of a (somewhat graphic, depending on your sensibilities) sexual nature.

DJ|
January 12, 2014 at 10:40 am |

On the White Sox concept, I especially like the Winged Sock sleeve patch and the use of white lettering on the (darker) gray away uniform. And of course, actual white socks.

Steve D|
January 12, 2014 at 10:54 am |

The Knicks and the Nets both wore white on the road last night…that was something I wasn’t expecting. Was that part of a bigger league wide theme?

Not a fan of the USMNT polo. Wear it to travel in, Jurgen can wear it on gamedays, anything but during matches.

Nike is pitiful. No consistency in the design of the USMNT kit. The crest is bad. Collars are bad. Nike designers must be busy or something, they really lack in the design department across the board for national team kits — especially on a World Cup year.

arrScott|
January 12, 2014 at 6:56 pm |

I’m with you on all points, except the crest. Which is, yes, lame, but that’s not Nike’s fault.

The fact that the USMNT has now been a serious wold soccer power for 14 years, and yet nobody in the world, including American fans, can tell you what Team USA looks like – that’s Nike’s fault.

Douglas King|
January 12, 2014 at 7:14 pm |

In Nike’s defense we’ve never had an identity in terms of uniforms (closest thing to a consistent uniform you can point to is that we almost always wore white over blue).

We’ll have to wait until we see the change kit, if it has a slash, then I don’t think you can continue to blame Nike for our lack of identity (unless it is another ghost one, if you look closely you’ll see that these jerseys do have hoops on them).

I feel our home kits should be a flag motif (shirt with red hoops, and blue shorts), and the change kit should have a slash of some sort. Our 3rd Kit should be a Red-based one and that one is the only one that should radically change in design from cycle to cycle (and it would not be worn in the World Cup).

So the Home and Change kit stay almost completely the same, and Nike can make their jersey-sales money from the Red kit and the occasional tweak to the home and change kits.

This is one of the main issues nike is having to deal with. They don’t have a template that they have to stick to (unlike Argentina, Brazil, and England). Unfortunately instead of establishing an identity for us they have resigned to trotting out a new look pretty much every cycle (the slash concept is the only idea that has survived more than a single 2-year cycle). I think the USSF also shares some blame though, as they have not pushed for the establishment of an identity (just like they have not looked into at least updating the crest to get rid of the 90s-tastic font and flying soccer ball).

Correct, the crest is USSF’s fault. I meant that, but it does appear that I’ve credited the lousiness to Nike. It’s a shame USSF doesn’t actually do anything about it, I haven’t heard one positive thing about the current crest compared to the “bicentennial” crest.

To me, it’s an easy decision.

Karson|
January 12, 2014 at 11:03 am |

I’m disappointed with the USMNT jerseys for the fact that they kept the stupid flying soccer ball crest. Would have loved to see them keep the centennial crest.

Brian|
January 12, 2014 at 11:42 am |

Every one of the half-dozen soccer publications I follow was less than confident of the accuracy of that USMNT jersey leak. We’ll see…

Douglas King|
January 12, 2014 at 6:57 pm |

I hope you are right, cause those are far too boring. I’m hoping we see a continuation of the Flag motif on the home kits and the slash on the change kits. I would love these things if the stripes were filled in, instead of the ghost stripes we see.

Ryan|
January 12, 2014 at 11:19 pm |

I’m with you there, for the most part. I don’t like the sash on the red & white shirt, but it would be a nice homage to the 1950 team if their solid white shirt had a navy sash rather than that barely-visible silver one they used.

And, seriously, who needs to get the ax at US Soccer to get that stupid crest changed already?!

Im really liking the Nike US soccer kit. Surprised me as I thought it would be garrish

NinerEd|
January 12, 2014 at 12:09 pm |

Two things on the “flag desecration”:

– Flag Code doesn’t have any instances of the flag being displayed in an arena. It is NOT against a wall, it’s suspended over a floor. The closest two references are displaying vertically over a street (Title 4 USC, Chapter 1, Section 7j) and “across a corridor or lobby” (Section 7o). In both instances, if the union is pointing north or east, it’s OK.
– Can we just stop with the overuse of the term “flag desecration” already?

name redacted|
January 12, 2014 at 6:25 pm |

Thank you! I hate the term “flag desecration” too. Folks, it’s just one uniform for one day, not a lifetime change.

arrScott|
January 12, 2014 at 7:00 pm |

No, we can’t dispense with it when it’s appropriate. I don’t care if it’s only a one-off; if you put the flag on a sports uniform, you are by definition desecrating the flag.

Why do people have such a hard time treating Old Glory with respect?

On the other hand, hanging the flag in a public space, that’s perfectly acceptable. The only real issue there is how to orient it. If it’s as likely to be see by people on either side of the flag, then there’s no way to ensure that the union displays on the viewer’s left. In such cases, the Flag Code says the union should be hung so it’s on either the east or the north side of the flag.

Jet|
January 12, 2014 at 12:16 pm |

Great interview with Mark, and great comments by him.

Mark, keep fighting the good fight on behalf of Padres brown! You’re so right about the overdose of red and blue in MLB. The original Pads of 1969 became my second-favorite team beside the hometown Mets purely based on their unique uni colors!
!
-Jet

Zack|
January 13, 2014 at 3:47 am |

The ’69 Padres uniforms are the best…not to much yellow and just enough brown to make it unique without making it hard for fans to wear in support

I’m not sure if the link works, but apparently the University of Chicago’s club hockey team has pretty sweet unis. It’s odd that we have a club anything team (saving perhaps ultimate frisbee), seeing that Hyde Park contains the highest concentration of nerds this side of anything.

superfly|
January 13, 2014 at 2:21 am |

That is a nice sweater.

pilotshatguy|
January 12, 2014 at 4:11 pm |

I’m all for getting rid of racist names and logos, but does this site have to beat us down with the fact teams have and have had racist names and logos? I wanted to punch the screen when I saw the “um… yea I guess a I agree with the colors…” shot. His point was the Braves have used green in their logo in their history. If it was used in a racist logo or not is irrelevant. Working in unnecessary shots like that just waters down the valid arguments you and this site have against racism in sports logos.

J.R. Clark|
January 12, 2014 at 4:59 pm |

I agree, that “um…yea I guess I agree with the colors” seemed smug and precious. They don’t realize it, but that kind of attitude pushes many of us who are undecided on this issue over to the non-politically correct side, no?

Nash|
January 12, 2014 at 5:10 pm |

I agree that the comment may be unnecessary for the regular uniwatch readers but don’t see how it should change your thoughts on the subject. An off-hand comment shouldn’t affect an opinion but I guess this is easy to say for me because ‘do’I have a strong opinion on the matter.

Hate, hate, hate the USMNT possible jersey. It looks like England, Jr. Rather they kept the red hoops (but make it 7 like the flag), change the numbers from platinum to navy, and add navy shorts and navy socks.

Douglas King|
January 12, 2014 at 7:21 pm |

We originally wore Navy shorts with the hoops jerseys, I don’t know why we started wearing white shorts (kinda ruins the flag motif).

Totally agree with you, our home kit should be the hoops and blue pants, and our change kit should be a blue jersey (which I believe should have a slash or sash) pants being white or blue. And our 3rd kit (red kit) should be the one that Nike experiments with for jersey sales purposes.

Douglas King|
January 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm |

We know what the Broncos and Pats, and 49ers would wear if they made the Super Bowl. Any idea what the Seahawks would wear?

NFC will be the away team so the Seahawks, so presumably they would wear one of their 3 white jersey combos (If they were to request a Color v. Color game one would assume they would go with their home uniforms). According to GUD, they wore the white pants with the white jersey the most (3 times) this season, followed by White over Blue (twice, 3 times if you count the preseason), and white over grey (0 times, but once in the preseason).

Al Gruwell|
January 13, 2014 at 12:54 pm |

I got 22/25 on the quiz. Thanks, Paul Lukas, and everyone on the site for jogging my memory over the years.

Danimal|
January 13, 2014 at 2:27 pm |

Regarding the “ghosted” University of Cincinnati wordmark that appeared in the Panthers end zone:

It would be an interesting UniWatch project to find somebody who is in charge of painting grass fields and have them explain the challenges behind replacing one logo/wordmark with another.

It may not be totally fair to say that the ground crew at BoA Stadium did “shoddy work” when perhaps there is simply no way to totally scrub an old logo off grass before replacing it with a new one?

The “ghosting” of old logos on grass fields seems to happen all the time, especially when college and pro teams share a stadium…